India is likely to sign a $12.5 billion deal with Australia by March 2007 to annually import 2.5 million tonnes of LNG from Iran, for a 25-year period beginning 2010.

Petronet LNG Ltd will import 2.5 million tpa of LNG from Chevron-operated Gorgon gas field for its Kochi terminal. This is in addition to Petronet's import of 5 million tpa of LNG from Qatar at its Dahej terminal in Gujarat.

The Greater Gorgon gas fields, located about 130 km off the north-west coast of western Australia, contain resources of about 40 trillion cubic feet of gas, Australia's largest known undeveloped gas resource. Petronet had, over the last year, concluded techno-commercial and legal agreements for the purchase of 2.5 million tpa of LNG from the Gorgon project. Chevron is the operator of the Gorgon project with a 50 per cent interest, with ExxonMobil and Shell each holding 25 per cent. The project involves building two trains capable of producing a total of 10 million tpa of LNG.

Also See:

Petronet LNG ties up with Gorgon Projects (07-Oct-06)